In August, we shared news of an updated Canvas Gradebook and encouraged instructors across Northwestern to try out the new features. Many took the opportunity to upgrade early and were pleased to experience the Gradebook’s new look and additional functionality. Most importantly, instructors appreciate enhancements in two specific areas — late/missing assignments and muting assignments. With the start of the academic year Tuesday, we want to provide some additional insight into the key enhancements.
What's New?
Canvas’ new Manual Grade Posting Policy allows instructors to hide student grades for all assignments in the course until the instructor is ready to release them. Additionally, instructors can now set automatic grading rules for late and missing submissions—allowing instructors to automatically deduct points when assignments are submitted late or missing.
Check out the step-by-step how-to videos and documentation on the Northwestern Canvas Learning Center or read on for more information on the new functions.
Manual Grade Posting Policy
To easily control grade visibility (formerly known as Muting Assignments) instructors can set a course-wide grade-posting policy for the Gradebook. The manual grade posting policy maintains the previous muting functionality but provides more flexibility for instructors by allowing them to mute or hide all the grades for their assignments in the course at once. When instructors are ready to release the grades for an assignment to their students, they can choose to release to everyone in the class or just to a specific course section.
Northwestern instructors who have trained on the updated Gradebook noted the convenience of applying a grading policy across the entire course. Previously, muting assignments was done individually for each assignment.
Learn more by watching the video below.
Late and Missing Work
The updated Gradebook now allows instructors to set grading rules for late and missing submissions, including automatic deductions or setting a default grade for past-due submissions. To learn more about setting grading rules, watch the video below for directions.
Resources
Teaching & Learning Technologies is offering Grading and Assignments workshops covering the updates to the Gradebook. View our full workshop schedule and register today!
Canvas Gradebook assistance is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you have questions about the recent enhancements in the Gradebook or any general Canvas inquiries, please contact Canvas Support, available 24/7.